Quest charter school wants to change fees

In the third year of a five-year contract with Peoria School District 150, the board chairman of Quest Charter Academy already is thinking about possible changes to the next contract.The charter school’s initial contract with District 150 does not reflect occupancy costs Quest has incurred since buying two school bui...

In the third year of a five-year contract with Peoria School District 150, the board chairman of Quest Charter Academy already is thinking about possible changes to the next contract.The charter school’s initial contract with District 150 does not reflect occupancy costs Quest has incurred since buying two school buildings from the district, Glen Barton said Monday.

District 150 pays the charter school 85 percent of standard tuition costs to operate the school, according to Barton. “Now that’s got to be modified to reflect our occupancy costs.”

Barton made the comments during a joint meeting of Quest Academy board members and the Illinois State Charter School Commission, of which he is also a member.

The commission, based in Chicago, visited Quest Academy’s middle school and ninth-grade classes and conducted its regular monthly meeting at the charter’s school recently-purchased building, the former Columbia School.

Barton said Quest had few occupancy costs, other than maintenance, when it started in the old Loucks School building. After deciding to add a freshman class to its fifth-through-eighth grade classes, the board bought both school buildings from District 150 for $300,000 earlier this year. The charter school board also borrowed $500,000 from Peoria County to make renovations on the buildings.

Barton mentioned the possibility of changes in a new contract after other commissioners asked about the charter school’s relationship with District 150. Charter schools, privately managed with public money, operate with the approval of the public school district where they are located.

“Even though we’re working well with the district now, that doesn’t mean everything is always going to be sweet and wonderful,” Barton said.

Other charter school board members said the collaborative history and broad community outreach efforts made establishing a charter school in Peoria fairly smooth, compared to the divisiveness that occurred in other cities.

While charter school commissioners had questions about how Quest operates in Peoria, Quest board members also had questions for commissioners.

McFarland Bragg, vice chairman of the Quest Academy board, asked why charter schools don’t have access to state funding for building improvements, as public school districts do. He also asked if it’s possible for Illinois mayors to get the authority to grant charter contracts.

Greg Richmond, chairman of the commission, was not optimistic on either count.

Explaining why charter schools can’t get school construction funding, along with other types of federal funding, is more complicated than the funding itself, Richmond said.

The year-old state commission grew out of efforts to give mayors the authority to grant charter school contracts, he said. Commissioners can approve charter school contracts, but only in cases where an applicant has been turned down by a local school district.

Pam Adams can be reached at 686-3245 or padams@pjstar.com. Follow her on Twitter @padamspam.